“Kathy and Sarah Paulson have a lot of great stuff to get to do” in the upcoming season, Murphy teased. “So, with Evan Peters, the three of them are the leads this year.”

A veteran cast member of four previous AHS seasons, beginning with 2013’s Coven (which won her an Emmy), Bates skipped last season’s AHS: Cult to star in the Netflix weed-dispensary sitcom Disjointed. But that series was cancelled last month after one season, freeing Bates up to return to the AHS fold.

No word yet on the theme of AHS‘ eighth installment, but Murphy would “neither confirm or deny” to EW the online rumor that it’ll be subtitled Radioactive. The EP has hinted, though, that the new season will take place in the future, calling it “different from what we’ve done before.”